I've no formula to play any character: Manoj Bajpayee

Mumbai, Aug 12 (IANS) National Award-winning actor Manoj Bajpayee says as a performer, he does not follow any formula to play any character but approaches things differently every time.

The actor, who is balancing between content-driven and commercial cinema, told IANS here: "I have no formula to play any character. I approach each of them differently. I could play a middle-class man, a police officer 50 times, but every time it has to be different.

"Otherwise what is the fun of performing? Also, the approach needs to be changed depending on the kind of film it is."

He calls his forthcoming film "Satyameva Jayate" a commercial one. "So my performance should be very different here (in this film) from a film like 'Aligarh'."

Giving an insight into his character DCP Shivansh, the actor of "Satya" fame said: "It is an action-thriller where a cat-mouse fight is happening between the two characters - a police and a criminal.

"What's interesting is how both of them are interrelated, how their conflict finds a common ground at the end of the journey."

Manoj has travelled to the various international film festivals with films like "Pinjar", "Aligarh" and "Gangs of Wasseypur". Earlier this year, he attended Cannes Film Festival to unveil the poster of one of his upcoming films - "Bhosle".

"We wanted to submit the film this year for the Cannes Film Festival, but little work on the post-production is left. That is why we could not submit the film. So we thought of going there and unveiling its poster.

"We all have been working on the film for the last four years. It is one of the projects which is close to my heart," said the actor, a regular at international film festivals.

Asked about how he sees the position of Indian cinema on the global map, Manoj shared: "The journey of Indian cinema... in the mind of global audiences started from the era of iconic (talents) like Satyajit Ray, Mani Kaul, Basu Bhattacharya, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani...where our films are watched, celebrated at international film festivals and people saw India through our film."

"These days though we are making several content-driven and independent films, and travelling to festivals also, I think somewhere we are falling short to earn the amount of respect that our elders did. Those days Shyam babu won awards in festivals when our films were hardly selected.

"Somewhere we have to find the rooted story that touches million hearts beyond cultural and geographical boundaries," he said.

Citing some examples, he said: "Films like 'S Durga' and 'Village Rockstars' are winning hearts of people abroad at festivals. When it comes to our Hindi films, we have to find such rooted stories because budget and technology are not a big deal anymore, efficient storytelling is all that matters."